Series/Festivals

Week of February 2, 2005

Film as a Subversive Art: Amos Vogel and Cinema 16 Paul Cronin. (unrated) Elaborating today upon the solid principles that prompted his founding of Cinema 16 (the first U.S. film society) in 1947, Amos Vogel maintains that the best films "subvert audiences' expectations and change or undermine previous ways of thinking or feeling" to disrupt, destroy and build new truths. Ingeniously circumventing New York censors, Vogel engineered diverse film programs, offering a collision of abstract, scientific, avant-garde and political works. Director Paul Cronin's informative, entertaining documentary captures the fascinating Vogel from his jam-packed office to his beloved NYC streets and interweaves commentary with illustrative clips. A wonderful sample program follows the hour documentary and includes Roman Polanski's Two Men and a Wardrobe, Kenneth Anger's Fireworks and Alexander Hammid's The Private Life of a Cat (the latter banned as obscene in the 1940s, because it shows kittens' birth). Screens at 7 p.m. Friday, February 4, and Saturday, February 5 in the Winifred Moore Auditorium on the campus of Webster University, 470 East Lockwood Avenue. Call 314-968-7487 for more information. (Diane Carson)